PARACHUTE CREEK — Benzene, a cancer-causing toxin, has been found in a newly completed groundwater monitoring well just 10 feet from Parachute Creek, where investigators have been looking for nearly four weeks into a suspected leak in natural-gas pipelines, tanks or other facilities in the area.

According to an update from Todd Hartman, spokesman for the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC), sampling results from the new well showed benzene in the water at levels between 1,900 parts per billion and 4,100 parts per billion.

The maximum safe level of benzene for human exposure is 5 parts per billion, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control. Benzene, a liquid hydrocarbon long associated with natural gas drilling activities, is a known carcinogen linked to leukemia and birth defects.

The new monitoring well is about 325 feet to the southeast of a set of valves and a “recovery trench” dug by Williams Midstream, the energy company conducting the cleanup, according to Hartman’s statement.

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